Holiday parade draws crowd despite the cold
SAXONBURG — Despite the frigid temperatures Friday night, hundreds of families and friends bundled up and headed to Main Street for the annual Saxonburg Holiday Parade and downtown ribbon cutting.
Wearing layers of clothes and sipping warm drinks were essential for attendees in the post-Thanksgiving tradition. While the weather was clear, temperatures dipped into the low 20s.
“It seems like every year it gets colder,” joked Tracey Bierhals of Saxonburg, who came to the event with her college-aged daughter and longtime neighbors.
The parade also marked the first major event downtown since more than $1.8 million in Main Street renovations were completed. Those included new brick sidewalks, benches, street lamps and an array of updated utilities.
The annual celebration represents a homecoming for some.
Bierhals' daughter Mindy recalled going to the parade many times growing up, but this is the first time she's returned to it recently.
“I wanted to come just to feel like I was at home again,” said Mindy Bierhals, 22, who's in town from Bethany College in West Virginia for the holiday weekend.
While they enjoy the parade, which included camels, several Christmas- and Christian-themed floats and the Knoch High School Marching Band, both Bierhals agreed the live Nativity scene that takes place each year is a family favorite.
The parade had a Polar Express-themed float, complete with a smokestack. Novotny's Pizza had a small truck in the parade and passed out slices of pizza to the sidewalk crowd, which ran up to four to five people deep on both sides of the street.
Camel-petting was the most exciting part for John Mazurek and his grandchildren. He got to the parade early with his family, securing front row seats with lawn chairs. He and his 2-year-old grandson Franklin Loper waited for the parade to begin while his granddaughters bought hot chocolate.
Franklin was wearing nearly a half dozen layers, and probably wrapped in the same number of blankets. His cheeks were red from the cold, but he smiled in anticipation.
“They want to pet the camels and then walk around Main Street,” said Mazurek of Butler. “You know, the typical kid things.”Meanwhile, Kim Martin, with her husband, Chad, and their young family, found a patch of snow in front of a store where they watched the parade. She bounced her 1-year-old daughter Delaney, wearing a fuzzy purple snowsuit and maroon knitted hat, on her chest. Her 2-year-old son Emerson ran back and forth nearby, picking up snow.“We try to come every year as long as it's not too cold,” said Kim Martin of Saxonburg.She said the event has provided a great alternative to Pittsburgh's Light Up Night celebration, which was a week ago Friday.“It's nice when you have the little kids because it's not far,” she said.When not watching the parade, several visitors found a break from the cold by shopping at businesses or going to the South Butler Community Library to visit Santa Claus.Following the parade, a line of Santa fans snaked through the aisles of the library to see the jolly man. Raelene Burfield and her son Brandon warmed up inside and slowly inched up the line.Burfield said it was their first time at the parade.“He had a lot of fun,” Burfield said of her 5-year-old, who was digging through her coat pockets for more parade candy. “We didn't know we were going to get candy and pizza.”She said the evening went well, and she hopes to make the trek an annual tradition.
